Hornet
July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Anything that crawls, buzzes or stings makes me a bit uneasy. To be honest, I truly detest insects. Given that, I always thought that Scotland was a safe place to live. All right, there’s the midge which does generate a lot of annoyance but they’re small. Luckily Schotland doesn’t host any massive beetles, cockroaches or spiders…
Except yesterday - while juggling a big piece of timber - I saw a glimpse of this ginormous insect hovering over my head. At first I couldn’t see it too good and thought it was a dragonfly (also not a favorite of mine, but they’re not too bad) but then I had a good look at it and saw it’s colors… bright yellow and black and about 4 centimeters in size. Blimey! A genetically engineered giant wasp here on Skye??!!
No… I later learned it was a Hornet. They do sting although I understand their sting is not as bad as a bee’s sting…
What’s the forecast?
June 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
No, not the weather this time! But a midge forecast… There actually is a midge forecast site on the web showing a Google map of Scotland and icons over several areas indicating the midge nuisance levels. I’ve been tracking the site for a couple of days now and I’m not yet impressed. While sustaining heavy levels of midges last Wednesday, I’ve never seen the indicator go higher than 2 (low level).
Well, the site is here and I’ve added it to the links in the side bar as well…
Painter of Skies
June 2, 2008 | 6 Comments |
Yesterday evening was spot on with one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve seen here. The colors were absolutely amazing and the whole scenario unfolded during an hour or so…
When I see the eventual result of the picture I took, there’s still always a bit of disappointment. For example, on the photo here you do not see the light purple tones of the hills of the Outer Isles. I experimented with shutter speed and aperture but was unable to capture it…
Anyway, this one is nice and gives an impression of the spectacular colors…
The full size picture is on FLICKR.
Saving private Blackface
May 12, 2008 | 1 Comment |
Today we went up the road to test the equipment in our holiday cottage. While going up there we saw a tiny, tiny black faced lamb lying in the ditch next to the access road. It got stuck into some old fencing materials, weed and twigs and it was screaming like there was no tomorrow. It’s mum was standing next to it but other than bleating back a bit, she did not do too much…
I decided to jump in the ditch and free the little screamer. It felt very fragile and I could feel its little heart pounding away as I untangled it from its uncomfortable position. When it was free it walked about for a bit and stared at me with a fuzzy look. Then it ran off to its mum with weird, funny jumps…
Later that day we saw it basking in the evening sun, looking quite content.
Bats
May 6, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Last night when walking Jingles we heard this weird sound. It’s hard to describe, but it sounded a bit like “wawawaw…. wawawawa”. Quite loud with different pitches. After some thought we decided that that must have been bats flying around. We could not see them though…
Eyes in the dark
April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Last night at 11:30 we went out with Jingles for his nightly toilet stop. We always bring a torch as it is generally pitch black. Upon leaving the house we heard a rustle from the bushes near the burn. As we pointed the torch at the direction of the sounds we saw initially four deer standing in the croft next to us. Sneaking up towards the sound revealed seven pairs reflecting in the dark and the silhouette of their bodies. The deer were not spooked of us and just stood there while eating grass…
Spring?
February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Well, one day you’re covered in snow and dealing with 90mph gales and the next day it feels like spring. Today felt like a Spring day. Blue skies, sun, no winds… just lovely! Days like today wipe the memory clean of gales and rain..
The return of winter
February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
A bit later than planned, here are some of the winter pictures made last Saturday. I think we had about 10 cm of snow and it was the first time we’ve seen so much snow on Skye. Unfortunately by Sunday it had all disappeared again. Within 2 hours we had our normal green world back. We did not go out to shoot some more pictures of the surroundings (Tables and Neist Point must have been an awesome sight) as it was hazardous to drive. It probably would have been a challenge to get up our steep driveway anyway…
Our animals coped with the snow each in their own way. Puffy couldn’t care less, as always. The hens went about the land looking for grass and looked a bit miserable all day. Jingles loved it and kept wondering what happened to the little balls of snow I threw at him.
The pictures are a bit gloomy. Unfortunately there was no winter sun to accompany the snowy landscapes…
Snow!!
February 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
We have about an inch of snow as of 23:45… I spoke too soon when I said that winter would not perform this year. Jingles appeared a bit puzzled by all that white stuff. Pictures tomorrow!
White (ish) table
January 10, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Yesterday we had a tiny patch of snow on Healabhal Mhor, the Gaelic name of one of MacLeod’s Tables. Not very impressive, I agree. I think this is probably as snowy as it gets…
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys